Presented here in 140 haunting duotone images that could have been made at any time in the past century and a half, David Plowden gives us a remarkable portrait of the barn as an icon of our agricultural heritage and also a touchstone of something essentially American. His images depict barns set in landscapes of vast farmland, revealing minute details of interior woodwork, painted advertising weathering away, and intricate stone- and brickwork rarely duplicated today. From the round-roofed Gothic barns of Michigan to the gambrelled dairy barns of Wisconsin, these vernacular structures still embody the purpose of their construction and the traditions of their builders.